I am a teacher educator at Radford University, specializing in teaching the Foundations of Education. My PhD coursework is in this field and it disturbs me that the state of VA is looking to change the title of one of the professional studies courses from "foundations of education" to "the teaching profession". Doing so will separate the course from its disciplinary roots, and the courses thus might not be taught by those who specialized in the foundations of education in their graduate coursework.

Many people have commented at this site: https://www.townhall.virginia.gov/L/comments.cfm?stageid=6643 regarding this title change (regarding Licensure Regulations for School Personnel [8 VAC 20 - 22]) and those comments are relevant to this section of the town hall comments as well, so please do look there to see what was posted regarding the Foundations of Education (can easily be picked out by comment title).

Further, an online petition was created and can be found here: https://www.change.org/p/virginia-department-of-education-retain-the-foundations-of-education-title-in-virginia-teacher-preparation-regulations?recruiter=406290682&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=facebook&utm_campaign=share_facebook_responsive&utm_term=des-lg-share_for_starters-no_msg

As of this writing (Oct 27, 9 pm), 219 people have signed that petition. One of my colleagues who lives in Virginia will be delivering the signatures and comments generated by this petition to the VADOE office before the comments period closes.